1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to head assemblies used in data storage devices, and more particularly to the manner in which a slider is affixed to the transducer suspension system.
2. Related Art
Hard disk drives are used in almost all computer system operations. In fact, most computing systems are not operational without some type of hard disk drive to store the most basic computing information such as the boot operation, the operating system, the applications, and the like. In general, the hard disk drive is a device which may or may not be removable, but without which the computing system will generally not operate.
The basic hard disk drive model includes a storage disk or hard disk that spins at a designed rotational speed. An actuator arm is utilized to reach out over the disk. The arm carries a head assembly that has a magnetic read/write transducer or head for reading/writing information to or from a location on the disk. The transducer is attached to a slider, such as an air-bearing slider, which is supported adjacent to the data surface of the disk by a cushion of air generated by the rotating disk. The transducer can also be attached to a contact-recording type slider. In either case, the slider is connected to the actuator arm by means of a suspension. The complete head assembly, e.g., the suspension and head, is called a head gimbal assembly (HGA).
In operation, the hard disk is rotated at a set speed via a spindle motor assembly having a central drive hub. Additionally, there are tracks evenly spaced at known intervals across the disk. When a request for a read of a specific portion or track is received, the hard disk aligns the head, via the arm, over the specific track location and the head reads the information from the disk. In the same manner, when a request for a write of a specific portion or track is received, the hard disk aligns the head, via the arm, over the specific track location and the head writes the information to the disk.
Over the years, the disk and the head have undergone great reductions in their size. Much of the refinement has been driven by consumer demand for smaller and more portable hard drives such as those used in personal digital assistants (PDAs), MP3 players, and the like. For example, the original hard disk drive had a disk diameter of 24 inches. Modern hard disk drives are much smaller and include disk diameters of less than 2.5 inches (micro drives are significantly smaller than that). Advances in magnetic recording are also primary reasons for the reduction in size.
This continual reduction in size has placed steadily increasing demands on the technology used in the HGA, particularly in terms of power consumption, shock performance, and disk real estate utilization. One recent advance in technology has been the development of the Femto slider, which is roughly one-third of the size and mass of the older Pico slider, which it replaces; over the past 23 years, slider size has been reduced by a factor of five, and mass by a factor of nearly 100.
Some of the recent improvement has resulted from techniques relating to the integrated lead suspension (ILS). An ILS includes contact pads, typically made of copper, attached to the suspension. A slider is also attached to the suspension with epoxy or another adhesive, and the contact pads are connected to the slider by means of a solder ball. The Pico slider has a footprint of 1.25 mm by 1 mm, and sat directly on the suspension. The Femto slider has a footprint of 0.85 mm by 0.7 mm, meaning it has less than half the available surface area for bonding of the larger Pico slider. Further complicating this are process constraints, which require the presence of polyimide standoffs for the Femto slider to sit on which were not required for the Pico slider. These standoffs further reduce the available area for bonding of the slider by the adhesive. Other slider formats, such as the Pemto or Femto-L (0.7 mm wide, but greater than 0.85 mm long), also have reduced slider bonding areas and can benefit from the present invention.
When the solder ball cools and resolidifies, it shrinks. This exerts a moment, hereinafter the “solder shrinkage moment,” on the Femto slider, with the polyimide standoff closest to the solder ball acting as a fulcrum. This moment is not adequately countered by the adhesive moment used to hold the Femto slider to the suspension, because of the very limited area for adhesive on the current suspension. This results in a pitch static attitude (PSA) tilt to the slider after solder ball bond termination. This PSA tilt pulls the slider out of the most desirable position.